Langman v. Alumni Association of the University of Virginia

Langman (plaintiff) and Stowe deeded property to the Alumni Association (defendant) with a mortgage-assumption clause, which the Association never formally signed but accepted, recorded, and acted upon by treating itself as owner and recording Stowe's mortgage payments as debts (later charitable contributions) — despite the director's privately expressed reservations about the clause. When Stowe became insolvent, the bank looked to Langman for payment, and when the Association refused to assume the mortgage, Langman sued; the trial court ruled for the Association, finding the clause mistakenly inserted and never knowingly accepted.